Between 7x19 and 7x20

It was a few minutes after 11 o'clock, but Finn was feeling rather good about himself. Since he and Piper had started dating, he'd been making more of an effort to be on time for things, and if he had to say so himself, he was doing a pretty good job of it.

Or at least, he thought he was until he walked into their favorite café and found Piper sitting alone at a table for two, an empty plate in front of her and rage in her eyes.

"Hey," Finn said hesitantly as he approached her. "I know I'm a few minutes late, but—"

"A few minutes?" Piper looked at him indignantly, and he froze.

"Weren't we meeting at 11?" he asked slowly as he cautiously took the seat across from her. She was glaring daggers at him, dark eyes following his every move.

"The movie started at 11. We were supposed to meet here at 10."

No way. Finn immediately pulled out his phone to check their texts, so certain that they had agreed on 11. His heart sank when he realized she was right. He was supposed to have been here an hour ago.

Groaning, he threw his head back then said as sincerely as possible, "I'm so sorry. I thought for sure we said 11."

Piper clenched her jaw and stared pointedly out the window next to them. "You're lucky I don't have my license, or I would've just left," she grumbled.

"I'm sorry," he apologized again, and she sighed, rolling her eyes.

"What have you even been doing?"

"Uh..." Given the anger radiating off of his girlfriend, Finn was fairly certain that telling her he'd only gotten out of bed less than an hour ago would be a terrible move right now. Even still, she seemed to suspect as much anyway.

Her eyes narrowing even further, Piper said, "You were sleeping, weren't you?"

"Maybe," Finn admitted with a sigh.

"Well, that explains why you didn't answer my calls."

"I'll make it up to you."

"How?" she asked, crossing her arms as she arched an eyebrow at him.

"I'll buy you coffee," he offered, completely overlooking the cup that was already sitting in front of her.

"No need. The waitress brought me one on the house because she thought I'd been stood up."

"At least it was free?" Finn said in a weak attempt to lighten the mood. It didn't work. Sighing, he glanced over to the counter and said, "Look, I'll eat really fast, and maybe we can still make it for most of the movie."

"Forget it. There's no point in going now." She picked up her phone without looking at him, and with another sigh of resignation, he moved to the counter to order.

The girl working the cash register greeted him with an icy stare, and Finn could only assume she was the waitress who assumed Piper had been stood up. Right before he paid, he noticed a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies in the display case. Knowing Piper had a sweet tooth, he added one to his order then rejoined her at their table.

"So what are we going to do for the next three hours then?" Finn asked as he sat down again. They didn't have to be at the studio for their final rehearsal with Miss Angela until 2.

Piper simply shrugged. "I don't know."

"Come on, Pipes, I'm sorry." She huffed and glanced up at him. Frowning, he added, "Why don't we do lunch tomorrow?"

"When? We have rehearsals all day."

"They have to let us eat at some point," Finn pointed out, "We can go to The Next Steep." Piper wasn't overly enthusiastic about eating lunch at the tea shop they'd spent most of their free time at this season, and he sighed. "It's our only option, babe. Take it or leave it."

She stared at him for a moment, considering the offer, then finally gave in. "Fine," she muttered, setting her phone down on the table. "Nick sent out the schedule for Dancemania by the way. Did you see it?"

"I'll check it later," Finn replied, looking up as the waitress set his food on the table in front of him. He thanked her, and she simply rolled her eyes at him, shooting a sympathetic look to Piper before walking away.

Piper was oblivious to the waitress, however, as she informed him, "He sent it in the group chat." As she spoke, she noticed the cookie sitting in front of him, and her brows knit together. "Why'd you get chocolate chip?"

It was no secret that Finn didn't like chocolate, so her confusion was understandable. He slid the dessert toward her as he chowed down on his fries. "Peace offering."

The corners of her lips twitched upwards, and she took the cookie without another word, munching on it as she returned to scrolling through the Dancemania schedule on her phone. They were silent until Piper had finished her cookie at which point Finn had already devoured half of his sandwich. He had taken to glancing around the café and observing the other patrons. There was another couple sitting on the other side of the dining area, looking completely at ease as they laughed about something. Finn wished he and Piper could be that comfortable together. Any other day, they would have been, but he had seriously messed up by getting the times mixed up this morning. His mind was running in a thousand different directions with all of the things he had to do before they left for Dancemania in two days. He seriously needed to get it together.

"Have you started packing yet?" Piper asked, breaking the silence between them.

Finn tossed his last fry in his mouth before shaking his head. "Nope." Packing was, as always, the last thing on his to do list.

Considering that Piper always planned out her days in advance, however, he should have expected her to have a different opinion on the matter. Indeed, she told him, "That's what we can do instead of the movie then."

"But we don't leave for two days," Finn immediately protested.

Piper raised an eyebrow at him, and he fell silent at the frown she was giving him. "Exactly. We leave in two days. When exactly are you planning on fitting in packing between all of our rehearsals?"

"I'm gonna do it tomorrow night."

"And what if something happens tomorrow?"

"Like what?"

"What if rehearsal runs really late, and then you get home, and you don't feel like packing because you're too tired? And we all know how much you value your sleep."

He wasn't sure if she was pointedly making a jab at him for sleeping in this morning, but she didn't sound angry anymore, so he let it slide. "We really need to work on your habit of always jumping to the worst conclusions," Finn said, only partially joking.

"Do you even have a packing list?"

Finn faltered momentarily but tried to play it off as he scoffed. "Of course I have a list. What kind of idiot packs without a list?"

He did. He was the idiot who packed without a list. But in his defense, he'd only forgotten something important on a major trip, like, three times. Maybe four if he counted the trip to Las Vegas, but he preferred not to think about that trip at all.

Piper seemed to sense that he was lying and simply picked up her phone again, thumb swiping across the screen as she muttered, "We'll just use mine." She pursed her lips, scrolling on what he could only assume was her packing list. "With a few adjustments."

"Adjustments?" he asked curiously.

"Well, you don't need to pack all of your make-up, do you?"

He didn't respond, taking the last bite of his sandwich and chewing contemplatively. After a moment, he told her, "The only thing I really need is hair gel." Considering it was the beginning of summer, California was bound to be humid, and his hair did not get along with humidity. It already took an ungodly amount of hair gel to keep his curls under control on a normal day.

Piper gave a tight smile, glancing at him as she said, "Oh, I know."

Once Finn had finished eating, they drove back to his house. His parents were both at work, and his little sisters were at school, so the house was quiet when they arrived. It crossed Finn's mind that his parents might not be thrilled at the idea of him being home alone with his girlfriend, so he sent them a quick text to let them know they were at home to pack for Dancemania. His mom's response was to make sure he packed plenty of underwear, which he took to mean that she was fine with it.

Piper wasted no time once they got to his room. She went straight to his closet and yanked the door open. Her hands on her hips, she gasped and asked in horror, "How many denim shirts do you own?"

"I don't know. I've never counted them." Finn's brows knit together as she gave him an appalled look. "What?"

"Nothing," she mumbled before starting to rummage through his shirts.

Finn would have liked to have some say in the clothes she packed, but given how into this Piper was, he wasn't convinced that he was going get one. With a sigh, he left his girlfriend in his room to go downstairs and find his suitcase. It had been a while since he had taken a trip anywhere, so it took some digging around in the downstairs closet until he finally found it.

When he returned upstairs, Piper had taken to laying his clothes out on his bed. He set his suitcase on the end of it and eyed the button-up shirts she had laid out. "What's all this?"

"Clothes you can wear for the show," Piper told him as if it should be obvious.

"What's wrong with my dance clothes?"

"Nothing. You need those too. Nick said to pack a couple of nice outfits in case of special events."

"Pipes, that's like four outfits," Finn pointed out, raising his eyebrows at her.

"Ah ah, you can never be too prepared," Piper snapped, wagging a finger at him as she grinned. She was clearly in her happy place right now, and he was inclined to let her do whatever she wanted. He had overslept for their date after all. It was the least he could do.

She returned to rummaging through his closet then re-emerged with his TNS jacket. "You definitely need this," she said, handing it to him. He immediately dropped it in his suitcase. When he looked up again, she was holding his grey, short-sleeved button-up that he'd worn on a couple of their dates and glancing at the shirts she'd already laid out on his bed, her lips pursed.

"What?" he asked, noting that she appeared to be internally debating something.

Piper glanced at him, and he could've sworn her cheeks had suddenly blushed. "Nothing. Just..." She cleared her throat and handed the shirt to him. "You should pack this one instead."

"Why?" Finn asked. It wasn't any different from the other shirts she had laid out.

"It just looks really good on you, okay?" she told him quickly as if she was embarrassed to admit it out loud.

"Oh, well, in that case..." He grinned cheekily as he took it from her, and she glanced at him, fighting a smile of her own before clearing her throat and getting back to business.

As Finn took to packing the shirt away, thriving at his girlfriend's compliment, Piper asked, "Where do you keep your socks?"

When Finn glanced up, she was reaching out to pull open the first drawer of his dresser, and his heart nearly jumped to his throat as he leapt over to stop her. "Whoa, hey, Pipes! You can't just start going through a dude's drawers."

She was looking up at him, slack-jawed, an eyebrow raised suspiciously. "Why not?"

Finn rolled his eyes, realizing she had taken that to mean that he was hiding something. "Chill. I just don't want you going through my underwear, okay?"

Her suspicions fell from her gaze as she laughed at him. "Finn, I have a brother and a million male cousins. I know what guy's underwear looks like. It's not a big deal."

"I'm going to choose to ignore how weird that sounds."

"Oh my god, I've done their laundry," she said with a roll of the eyes. She was still smirking in amusement.

Finn simply frowned at her. Regardless of how much laundry she'd done for her family members, he wasn't opening his underwear drawer with her standing right next to it. They looked at each other for a moment then Finn gestured with his hand as he asked awkwardly, "Can you turn around or something?"

"You're ridiculous," Piper told him softly, but she complied, bumping his arm with hers affectionately as she turned back to begin folding the clothes she had laid out.

As Finn pulled his drawer open to grab underwear and socks to pack, he heard Piper gasp in horror behind him. "What?" he asked, turning around in concern. His first thought was that Finnn the frog must have escaped his tank somehow, and he really hoped he wasn't going to have to chase his sister's frog all over the house. Finnn the frog was notoriously difficult to catch.

Thankfully, however, there was no frog in sight. Piper was holding up Finn's TNS jacket and looking at him with wide eyes. "Do you just throw all of your clothes in your suitcase without folding them?"

"Yeah?"

"Finn."

"What? They get wrinkled if you fold them!"

"Not if you fold them correctly," Piper snapped with a shake of the head.

Finn sighed and turned back to his dresser. Piper was apparently very particular about her packing system. He supposed he should have expected it, but it didn't make it less annoying. Still, she was trying to help, and even though there were several other things he'd rather be doing right now, at least he wouldn't have to worry about packing later.

Once his clothes had been packed, Piper sat on his bed and read through her checklist one thing at a time, letting Finn get the rest of his things himself. Once they had gone through her list, Finn tossed his suitcase on the floor and joined her on his bed, stretching his legs out in front of him as they sat against the headboard.

"Did you see our picture on the Dancemania page?" Piper asked as she scrolled through her Instagram feed. The show had been introducing all of the competitors for the upcoming season on their social media accounts, and The Next Step was the team of the day.

"Yeah, it's so sick!" Finn enthused, tossing the stress ball that usually sat on his bedside table in the air and catching it in his hand repeatedly. "Can you believe we're gonna be there in a couple days? Us, on the Dancemania stage! Do you know how many legends have danced on that stage? It's going to be insane!"

"I know!" Piper said excitedly, but her smile faded as she leaned her head back against the headboard.

Finn glanced at her, pausing in the tossing of his stress ball. She was chewing on her lip, her brown eyes suddenly distant, and he asked, "How are you really feeling about it?" He already suspected what her answer would be.

She glanced at him, letting her facade fall as she shrugged. "I'm really excited," she told him honestly as she dropped her phone to the side and began fidgeting with her hands in her lap. "I am. But I'm still a little nervous, I guess."

Finn lay his hand on top of her fidgeting ones, and she sighed, meeting his eye. "I've never been the center of a competition number before. I don't want to mess it up."

"You're not going to mess it up," Finn assured her.

"You thought the same thing at Regionals, but we both know how that turned out."

"Pipes, stop it. That was completely different."

She swallowed thickly, nodding and looking down at her lap. She wrapped both of her hands around his as she muttered, "I had a dream last night that we messed up the dance, and my brother booed us off the stage, and Miss Angela was the judge, and..." She trailed off and took a shaky breath, slowly letting it out.

"How'd we mess it up?" Finn asked gently.

"You dropped me, and then I was supposed to do an aerial and, just, completely froze."

"That's not going to happen."

She glanced at him, frowning, and shook her head. "But you don't know that."

"Piper, you don't even have an aerial in the opening number, and even if you did, your acro has improved so much since Regionals. And there's no way I'm going to drop you, so you don't have to worry about that either."

The corners of her lips twitched at the reassurance. "You're right. I know," she breathed.

He placed a soft kiss on her forehead then wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She glanced up at him, humming in contentment before wrapping her arms around him and resting her head on his shoulder. It was the most comfortable thing in the world to cuddle with Piper, Finn couldn't help thinking contently.

Piper continued scrolling through Instagram in an attempt to distract herself from her nerves, and Finn simply watched until she finally stopped and tossed her phone aside again. Hugging him a little tighter as she readjusted her position, Piper asked, "Is your mom excited about the show?"

"Yeah, she's stoked about it. She's already got the DVR set to record every episode." The only person who rivaled Finn's mother's love for Dancemania was probably Nick.

Piper chuckled fondly then asked, "What about your dad?"

"Mark doesn't usually get that into it, but he's pretty excited too."

"That's good," Piper murmured, "But what about your dad? In Vancouver?"

Finn inhaled sharply. Piper sat up after feeling the way his muscles had tensed underneath her, and Finn pointedly looked anywhere but at her. "I mean, I haven't exactly told him." Why would he? His father had never been very supportive of his love for dance, so he most certainly wouldn't care about Finn competing on a dance show, even one as big as Dancemania. Finn had given up on asking his dad to watch his competitions years ago.

"But Dancemania is a huge deal. We're going to be on national TV. You should tell him!"

Sighing, he shook his head and snapped, "No, Pipes, you don't get it."

"So tell me," she told him seriously, shifting to sit cross-legged in front of him. "You never talk about your dad, Finn. What could be so bad about him?"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Maybe not," Piper muttered, frowning down at her lap, her expression softening as she lifted her gaze back to meet his. "But I want to at least try to- if you'll let me."

She had placed a hand on his leg, giving him the look that meant she was completely serious. He stared at her for several moments, debating in his head if he should tell her and what he should tell her and where to even start.

He didn't hate his dad. At least, he didn't think he did. But there was resentment and hurt and years of things left unsaid buried deep inside him. His father was incredibly stubborn and closed-minded. Finn hadn't inherited that from him, thankfully. He didn't want to be like him.

Finally, after several moments in which Piper had bit her lip and returned to frowning down at her lap, Finn muttered, "He never supported me." Piper looked up in surprise as if she hadn't expected him to actually open up to her, and Finn went on. "He's always been a numbers kind of guy. He never wanted me to be a dancer, and he did everything he could to try to change my mind."

"Like what?" Piper asked quietly, her brows knitting together in concern.